Chapter 7: The Delegations

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Chapter 7: The Delegations

If anyone called the Malfoy family fools, then that was very far from the truth. You didn't survive through countless generations, living through a devastating Wizarding War and the witch hunts of the 1700s just to come out and be called fools.

Perhaps, even if Selene disliked most of the principles that her family came up with, they deserved credit where credit was due. Long lasting survival being one of them, brain smarts being another. She had thankfully inherited at least one of those traits, and she was begrudgingly thankful for that.

It didn't stop making Arithmancy an absolute headache, though. Selene pulled a frustrated expression, running her hand through her hair and making another notation in the margin of the page

When they arrived in the Entrance Hall after a Potions lesson later that week, they found themselves unable to proceed up the stairs owing to the large crowd of students gathered around a large sign that had appeared at the foot of the large marble staircase.

TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT

The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 O'Clock on Friday 30th October. Lessons will end half an hour early.

Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.

"Only a week away!" Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff said, emerging from the crowd. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him."

"He already knows," Cho whispered to Selene, smiling broadly, eyes shining. "I told him! Do you think he likes me?"

"Yes," Selene rolled her eyes. "I bet he jacks off thinking about you every night."

That had been a joke, but Cho thought Selene was being serious. "Really?" she grinned. "I guess the short skirts are doing their job then… He's definitely been looking at me a lot more recently. Just a little bit more work, and he'll be eating out of the palm of my hand."

"Trust me, Cho," Selene smiled. "He already is."

oOo

When they went down for breakfast on the morning of the 30th October, they found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each representing a Hogwarts house – red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table was the biggest banner of all, depicting the Hogwarts coat of arms, lion, eagle, badger and snake united all around a large letter 'H'.

Selene and Cho made their way to the Ravenclaw table, taking a seat about halfway down. Cho piled her plate high with untoasted bread, reaching across Marietta to grab the butter. "Raw diet," she explained, not looking up. "I want to look my best, especially if Cedric gets into the Tournament. Did you know that the host school has a Ball to celebrate the Tournament, and the champions open it with their partners?"

"Yes," Selene replied, opting for the slightly more fattening breakfast option of bacon and eggs. "I did know that. In fact, I told you that. Approximately two hours ago."

"Well, so?" Cho shrugged. "You might have forgotten. And you didn't know, did you Marietta?"

"Well-"

"Don't tell me," Cho sulked, shoving a slice of buttered bread into her mouth. "You knew too."

"Tell you what I know," Sue Li cut in, leaning across to the Sixth Years. "The Weasley twins are looking fit today."

Selene immediately shoved a whole fried egg into her mouth, chewing to mask the sounds of the conversation. She had had enough of the twins. Enough to last five million lifetimes. George kept trying to hold a conversation with her in DADA, he'd started smiling at her in Transfiguration too.

There was also that time that he'd accosted her in the hallway outside Gryffindor tower, asking her for a kiss over and over again in exchange for him letting her go. She'd been let go after she'd kneed him in the bollocks, and George had sworn on pain of a very slow death to never do that again.

"It's flirting!" Cho had said, at the time, eyes going wide. "He's really into you! He obviously wants you two to go and snog in the Forbidden Forest-"

"We really need to get you laid," Selene had chuckled, shaking her head. "No, he's just a prick. And he does that to every girl that he's friends with, I know, I saw him doing it to Katie Bell just yesterday."

"Friends?" Cho's eyebrows raised, as she sat up straighter in her seat. "Are guys friends now? Have you exchanged addresses and everything?"

Selene had shut up again at that point, going back to her Charms homework, ignoring the heat in her cheeks. They weren't friends. They were just two people that had been forced to sit together by a guy with a mad, spinning eye.

Selene tuned back into the conversation just in time to hear the fateful words of: "Selene knows George Weasley, don't you Selene?"

Sue Li seemed to regard the Prefect in a whole new light. "Can you introduce me?" she asked, in hushed tones. "I just… I've never had the guts to talk to them before…"

Selene glanced over her shoulder at the twins, raising an eyebrow. They seemed to be engaged in heated conversation with their younger brother, and neither of them spotted her looking over. "Why?" she asked Sue Li, quickly, shovelling another forkful of bacon into her mouth.

"Well," Sue Li blushed. "They're just hot, you know? All the girls like them. Especially Fred, he's so charming…"

Selene was officially put off her food. Sue Li's swooning was making her a tiny little bit nauseous. "Sure, fine, I'll introduce you," she begrudged. "Just… Give me a second to mentally prepare."

Sue turned a scarlet red colour, before turning back to her fellow fourth year friends. "Come on," Selene said, after a moment, getting to her feet. "But don't expect wonders. I barely know them."

As they both made their way over, George looked up. A smile broke across his face as he leapt to his feet, grabbing Selene by the arm. "Malfoy!" he beamed, which made Harry and Ron start and glance around. "My main chum, my old pal, my butternut squash…"

"Malfoy?" Ron said, looking concerned, barely noticing Selene. Fred, on the other hand seemed positively furious that his twin was palling up with the daughter of their father's forsworn enemy. "Where's Malfoy?"

"Not here," Selene said, disengaging her arm from George's grip. "He's on the Slytherin table. Weasley, as lovely as it would be to engage in small talk, I'm here for other reasons."

From the corner of her eye, Fred relaxed. "Good," he said, outright hostility in his tone. "Now, get on with it, Malfoy. Don't you have some Slytherin arse to fuck?"

"Christ," Selene muttered. "Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

Merlin, what did Fred think she was? Selene glanced at George, but George seemed just as perplexed. "Hey, Fred, mate," he began. "She's my friend, it's chill. Pull that broomstick out of your arse."

"Oh, so now you're palling up with the Malfoy family," Fred seethed. A look of recognition began to spread across Ron's face. As for Harry, he simply stood there, silently regarding. Hermione looked a little embarrassed. "What's happened to you, Georgie? Got a little hankering for some blood money?"

George went pink as he met Fred's gaze. "Leave her alone, Fred," he said warningly. Selene raised an eyebrow, silently wondering why she was being stood up for.

"Hey, you know, it's okay," Selene cut in swiftly, as Fred purpled. "I'll just go. I understand."

From behind her, Sue Li gradually trailed off back to the Ravenclaw table, looking slightly disappointed. Nobody noticed, as they were all too busy fixating on the discourse between the twins and Selene.

"No, it's okay," George countered Selene's approach. "My twin here is just being a complete prick. Fred, I swear to Godric, stop being a little bitch!"

There was a pause, in which Fred turned his furious gaze on Selene. The Ravenclaw shrunk back a little, taken aback by the hatred in his eyes. She'd known this would happen, of course, but the momentary show of friendship from George had given her hope. Even if it was false hope, it was hope nonetheless.

"I'll talk to you later, George," she said under her breath, giving him a meaningful look. She glanced over the other three, trying not to be disheartened by the scowls she was getting from Ron and Harry. Hermione shot her a nervous, if small, smile.

She could feel the glares as she turned away. Hopefully, Draco hadn't overheard that. If he'd even had the merest suspicion that Selene was talking to the Weasleys, he would Owl their parents immediately. Just as a precaution, of course.

Selene didn't stall at the Ravenclaw table, instead grabbing her bag from her previous place, shoving another mouthful of bacon down her throat and walking quickly out of the Great Hall. Draco followed his sister with his narrowed pale blue eyes.

oOo

Dusk was falling when the students filed down the front steps and lined up in front of the castle. The evening was cool and clear, the moon already shining in the night sky like one of Professor Trelawney's Crystal Balls.

Selene was standing between Cho and Marietta in the second row from the back, wrapping her winter cloak around her shoulders as the evening cold began to set in. Cedric was standing on the other side of Cho, and he passed his own cloak to the shivering girl after only a few minutes, along with a smile.

In her mind, Selene smirked, but outwardly, she kept her gaze fixed on the sky.

"There!" Yelled a sixth year, pointing over the forest.

Something large, much larger than a broomstick was hurtling across the deep blue sky toward the castle, growing larger all the time.

As the gigantic black shape skimmed over the treetops of the Forest, the lights shining from the castle hit it, revealing a gigantic powder blue horse-drawn carriage, the size of a large house. It soared towards them, pulled by a group of winged horses, each the size of an elephant.

The front three rows of students drew back as the carriage hurtled ever lower, coming in to land at a tremendous speed before crashing down.

A boy in pale blue robes sprang forward and opened the doors to the coach, and the most gigantic woman Harry had ever seen emerged, followed by a dozen girls and boys, all in their late teens.

One of the prettier girls, a tall blonde haired beauty gasped slightly as she looked over towards the Ravenclaws.

"Selene!" She exclaimed, rushing over towards the Ravenclaw group, as their Headmistress made no attempt to stop her.

Selene grinned and slipped out of the crowd to wrap her arms around her French penfriend. "Fleur!" she grinned, squeezing the slightly older girl tightly. "I didn't know you'd be coming!"

"Well, eet just 'ad to be done," Fleur grinned back at her friend, kissing her once on each cheek. "The chance to compete? It's a once in a lifetime opportunity!"

"True," Selene chuckled at Fleur's antics, repeating the kissing action. "Will you all come and sit with us at the Feast?"

"But of course!" Fleur exclaimed. "Give me but a moment, Selene, ma cherie. I will be back shortly."

The French beauty walked back to her group, flashing Selene a stellar smile as she stood beside the rest of her cohort, all dressed in the same pale blue robes.

"What the-?" Ron raised an eyebrow from the group of Gryffindors, who had all been regarding the spectacle unfold with uncharacteristic interest. "How does Malfoy senior know that extraordinarily beautiful French girl?"

"Never mind that," Hermione brushed Ron's comment aside. "Imagine how much culture they can tell us about… I mean, Selene must know a lot too…"

"Well, she can set me up with the blonde one," Ron said smugly. "It's always useful having inter-continental relations. Ow, 'Mione…" Rubbing the spot on his arm where Hermione had punched him, Ron glared at her.

"Earlier you were all 'Oh my god she's Malfoy's sister I'm never going to talk to her' and now after you find out her friends are pretty you instantly think 'Yay! Now she can hook me up!' Honestly Ronald."

"Look, shoot me for being interested in her," Ron rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry. She's just… Mesmerising…"

"Ronald, you know very well that she won't so much as look at you." Hermione cut in, gritting her teeth and folding her arms.

"Yes – but George sits next to Malfoy's sister in Defence Against the Dark Arts! He can get her to put in a good word for me!" Ron plotted, sounding more and more excited by the millisecond.

"You might want to start by calling her Selene," Hermione recommended. "You won't get anywhere by referring to her as Malfoy senior."

"And you, my dear brother, are deluded," George cut in. "If you want Selene to get that hot French girl to go out with you, you'll have to ask her yourself."

"No way," Ron blanched. "I'm not talking to Malfoy's sister."

"She's really nice," Hermione protested. "She's very quiet, always in the library before lessons and after dinner, helps me out with Charms and Arithmancy if I'm stuck, she was the one that joined S.P.E.W. and actually wears her badge!" Hermione ended with thinly veiled venom at Harry and Ron's reluctance to wear the brightly coloured badges. "She doesn't bite, really. But you have to talk to her, she's a bit shy."

"You sound like you're giving me instructions on how to approach a kitten," Ron grumbled.